Coworkers At Calimov
by isobeljones2000
Summary: 26 oneshots each based off a single word prompt from each letter of the alphabet, set in and around the offices of Calimov. Nick/Katherine (little bits of Eve/Will and Lily/Cain added in for good measure) Jumps around Series 1/2/3 (Complete!)
1. Anecdote

_A/N) Look what I've been working on during these months of apparent silence! Here's an alphabet challenge centred in the world of Eve because I miss it: 26 oneshots all based off a single word starting with each letter of the alphabet. I haven't done one of these before, so let's see how it goes. Some of the first ones are prewritten already, but some are still simmering in my head thus far, all of varying lengths. Mostly Nick/Katherine, but other shippings will doubtlessly creep their way in here because why not. I hope you enjoy and please comment on any oneshots that you like!_

 _This first one is very short, but sweet ;)_

* * *

 **Anecdote**

"And then Will realised it had been just a dog all along! He had tried to get Eve to frighten away what he thought was a fox, and it was just our next-door-neighbour's dog." Nick's forehead creases slightly as he frowns, trying to remember the detail that was apparently key to completing his long, aimless tale. "Or was it a badger he was scared of? Anyway –" He tails off into empty space, looking hopefully at the receiver of his anecdote for a reaction.

Katherine regards him critically for a long moment. "You know that anecdote made no sense, don't you, Nick?" is her condescending query.

"Oh." Nick looks regretful for a moment, before brightening. "Do you want me to go over it again?"

"No," is her immediate reply. "I'm sure my future life and career doesn't depend upon extricating any useful details from your anecdote. It does, however, depend on getting this report finished and sent off by the end of the day. So stop rambling and start writing."

Nick looks faintly hurt, but obediently does as she says, fumbling for his keyboard under the mass of paper and blueprints that constituted the state of his desk.

That's why, when she finds Nick relaying what seems like the very same story to a faintly confused looking Phil at their usual lunch table later that day, Katherine decides to swing by their lunch area and pay Phil what she deems later to have been a good deed.

"Don't do it," she advises seriously once she's within earshot. "Spoiler – it was the dog all along. Or badger, or whatever. There. Now you can get on with your mundane life in the knowledge that you haven't just wasted a quarter of your lunch break on trying to unravel some sense from Nick's anecdotes."

Katherine smiles secretly at Nick's annoyed look at her after she apparently just ruined his long winding story. "It made no sense anyway," she says airily as she walks away to get some salad from the lunch counter.


	2. Breakthroughs

**Breakthroughs**

Most of the time, work is hell.

A frustrating, tiring, boring hell.

In fact, Nick's not even sure why he continues to get up at ungodly hours every morning just to come in to work, when most of the time it just involves staring blankly at computer screens, making tiny, hopeless adjustments to blueprint designs or waiting the two hours until the first allotted coffee break. Usually work is putting two and two together and getting about thirteen.

Therefore, work equates pretty much to hell.

But sometimes – just sometimes - there are certain times when it's not quite so bad.

With every few hours of slugging it out, getting frustrated by tests not working, the complex human mind being outwitted by the comparatively simple digital one – there are occasionally moments when everything does slot into place. When everything works right at any one time, or they put two and two together and it actually comes out as something they expect.

When Katherine turns to him, her face breaking out into an identical smile to his own as they realise they've just made what every research company dreams of – progress.

Neither of them are particularly prone to large outbursts of emotion, but even Katherine can be found to get a little excited when a breakthrough takes place, when they're one step closer to the finish line that always seems so far away, even when they think they're nearing a project's completion. A coffee break would appear early for a couple of days, or Katherine wouldn't yell at quite as many forensics employees as usual. Of course, as all moments do, it all ends rather quickly, and they're back to the weeks of frustration and mindless boredom.

But it's all worth it for those precious breakthrough moments, when it makes him glad to be a scientist, glad to be in this particular hell that calls itself an office, even glad to be in the situation with this particular person.

The breakthroughs somehow seem to make it all worthwhile.


	3. Coffee

**Coffee**

"Coffee, Katherine?"

He hadn't thought it was such a complicated question. Apparently, judging by his superior's sharp glance over at him, it had unseen consequences that he had failed to consider in his sleep-deprived, caffeine-desiring state. "Are you saying I look tired?" Katherine accuses straight away.

Nick doesn't really know how to answer that. Obviously, the wisest thing to do would be to assure her that no, of course she doesn't look tired, she looks as alert and focused as usual; but the faint grey bags under her slightly red-rimmed eyes juxtapose this argument.

Because it's true. They are both tired, whether they'll admit it or not. Early mornings and late nights working on Project Eternity .2 - as well as trying to focus on blocking both Mary, PRICE and the usual rival companies' attempts to hack them - have taken their toll, as time tends to do. There had reached a point last night when they had suddenly realised it was actually early morning, and Nick sent a rueful text to his son to apologize for losing track of time, since there was actually no time to go home and sleep. Now they've both been up and awake for just under twenty-six hours, and both have moods to match.

Luckily, Katherine sees his exhausted expression, so similar to her own, and relents a little. "Sorry," she even finds herself saying uncharacteristically, before Nick can hazard a reply to her earlier query. "Guess I'm just –" she yawns as if to prove her point – "Tired. Makes me a little short-tempered."

"S'all right," assures Nick in a mumble, trying to hide his own yawn with a hand and casting a slightly accusing look at Katherine as she notices. "Yawns are catching, you know."

The woman rests her chin absent-mindedly on her fist, shuffling her free hand through a pile of unfinished blueprints and official-looking documents and pulling a face. "Are we anywhere near done?" she asks, trying to stifle yet another exhausted yawn and sleepily wishing there was some kind of feasible way to prop up your own eyelids, which are annoyingly heavy at this point.

Her employee looks defeated. "Depends on your definition of 'done'. I'm not even sure I know what done looks like any more."

"Not this," Katherine concludes.

"No." Nick sighs. "Not this. Still a pretty long way from this."

The woman squares her shoulders in an attempt at renewed determination, although it's difficult when all you feel like is curling up somewhere and falling into a long, deep, restful sleep. "Fine. I guess I'll stay here over –" she checks the clock briefly – " _Lunch_ , then. It's my responsibility, after all. You can go home and get some rest if you like. I'll cover for you."

Nick sighs, indecision dancing in his hazel eyes for a moment before he makes a conscious choice. "Fine. No. I'll stay and help, I guess. It's equally my responsibility as it is yours. Though first – I definitely need that coffee." He pauses halfway on his way out of the swinging lab doors, seeming to remember his previous objective and glancing inquiringly back at Katherine. "So, do you want coffee or not?"

Katherine gives this due consideration, before nodding slowly, figuring that it's a bit late to worry about maintaining her alert countenance, and she'll probably need some kind of stimulant to get her through what promised to be an equally long day. "Yeah. Go on then."

Her exhausted-looking co-worker somehow finds the energy to roll his eyes. "There. That wasn't so hard, was it?"


	4. Dirt

_A/N) Hi guys! Just to let you know, I am just about to leave for a two week holiday, so you won't see any updates until around early September, when I'm back. For that reason today I'm posting every chapter up to 'I' in this series which is all I have prewritten so far, to make up for the absence. Anyway, see you soon; please comment if you like!_

 **Dirt**

"We need dirt!" announces Katherine as she strides into the main office, her hair up in a high ponytail which flicks her cheek as she swerves over to Nick's desk. She places her hands – slender and neatly manicured – on the back of the desk and faces Nick head-on so he can't look anywhere else in the room.

Obediently, Nick looks up, an enquiring expression on his face. "Dirt?" he asks uncertainly.

"Yes. Dirt," Katherine repeats. "Rumours, news articles, hidden secrets, the lot. We need as much as we can get on Lord Hoffman, in case he tries to challenge me for my leadership again."

"And what would be the mature, sensible thing to do?" Nick asks calmly.

His boss drops her gaze almost guiltily. "The mature, sensible thing to do would probably be to just lodge a court complaint against him, and hope that this whole affair fizzles itself out," she recites quickly, almost sounding like a sulky child.

"And are we opting for the mature, sensible option?"

"We've just created an adorable, nine-year-old child robot and named it KT," Katherine points out. "I think we dropped out of the realms of mature and sensible a long time ago."

Her colleague considers this, before looking back up and shrugging sheepishly. "True."

Katherine springs into action, moving around the desk and dropping into the seat next to Nick, fingers already poised over the keyboard, ready to type. "In that case, I'm on dirty rumours and secrets." Her eyes flash: a fleck of emerald green leaping out of the grey. "The juicy stuff."

Nick sighs, though truthfully he wants to see Lord Hoffman go down as much as his boss evidently does. "I'll check the tech news for the last couple of weeks, I guess."

She grins, an evil glint present in her eyes. "Let's dig up the dirt, Nick."


	5. Exercise

**Exercise**

Nick makes his way rather awkwardly through the gym, feeling quite out of place in amongst the shining equipment and the loud pop music that blares overhead. A sole woman is cycling on one of the stationary bikes that line the far wall across the gym, her face turned away from him so he can't make out her features. Her limbs are long and lithe, and she seems to cycle effortlessly, nodding her head slightly to the music.

He finds the showers in the far corner, hidden behind a stack of weights and a man who he dimly recognises from the marketing department lifting a large dumbbell over his head. Luckily, there's one free, and he slips into a cubicle, hanging his towel over the door as he tries to ignore the near-deafening music blasting overhead.

It's only when he comes back out of the shower rooms, shaking his head to dispel some of the droplets of water defiantly clinging to his short hair, that he realises a familiar face is in the gym, now running on the treadmill closest to him. "Katherine?"

The woman who he realises he had seen cycling before turns her head at the sound of her name, and it is indeed his superior. Her hair is tied back from where it usually brushes her shoulders in a high ponytail, and she's wearing simple black leggings and a tracksuit top that differs completely from the smart blazer and trousers he's used to seeing her in.

Katherine presses a button on the controls of the treadmill, slowing her pace to a walk. "Nick," she greets curtly, only slightly out of breath. "I didn't know you frequented the gym."

"I didn't even know we had a gym here until about twenty minutes ago," Nick confesses truthfully. "Phil saw me in the lobby and critically told me that I looked like death. Our shower's broken at home, you see, and I haven't had chance to nip over to Rebecca's for a quick shower for a couple of days."

Katherine wrinkles her nose. "Nice."

"I didn't know you came to the gym either," says Nick, running a towel over his damp hair, trying to dry it off a little and only really succeeding in making it even more unkempt.

Katherine shrugs nonchalantly, taking a quick sip from her water bottle as she strides. "I come here a couple of times a week. You think I keep this figure by striding around yelling at people all the time?"

"Um –" Nick has to admit he hasn't really thought about it before.

"So you didn't know we had a gym at Calimov, Nick. Really? And you've been working here for how long?" Katherine wants to know, luckily not following up on Nick's hesitation to her last rhetorical question.

"Hey –!" Nick folds his arms defensively as he tries to think of an argument. "I'm not really a gym person, that's all," he finishes somewhat lamely.

Katherine casts a glance at his slightly bulging midriff, hidden under a layer of checked shirt and usual knitted jumper. "Evidently."

Her co-worker huffs, following her gaze and tugging at his jumper protectively. "Hey!" he retorts.

To his surprise, Katherine actually cracks a smile. She doesn't actually apologise for her insinuated insult, of course, but she doesn't follow it up with another barbed comment, which the scientist figures is better than nothing.

"See you in a few minutes," Nick offers, the statement sounding more like a question than anything.

"See you in the office." Katherine nods evenly, switching the movement of the treadmill back to a rapid pace and beginning to run again as Nick heads for the door, still slightly stung by Katherine's barbed comment, though honestly he can't say he's surprised any more.


	6. Family

**Family**

Katherine seems somewhat distracted today. She walks past Nick's desk for what the scientist is fairly sure is the fourth time, her fingers knotting together and her gaze focused on the floor.

"Katherine – is everything all right?" Nick inquires hesitantly after his superior completes a fifth circuit of the workspace. Perhaps she's going for some kind of office track pacing medal.

Katherine seems to notice his presence and looks up, a slightly dazed, perplexed look in her eyes. "It's my family," she hisses over to him, a note of strained urgency in her voice. "They've called me and said they want to visit me this weekend!"

"Um – good?" Nick replies with a faintly confused smile, misunderstanding her tone.

"Yeah. I'm sure it's all fine and happy when _your_ family visits you for an _entire weekend_ ," Katherine accuses him. "But there again, I'm sure your mother doesn't make scathing comments at what you've done with your life and why I didn't go into a job like – oh, I don't know, hers? And I'm equally sure that your older sister isn't an esteemed fashion designer with her own company who my aforementioned mother dotes on."

"Guess I know where you get your scathing comments from," remarks Nick. "Anyway, you have your own company too."

"Yeah. Unfortunately, my mother is only too aware of the recent… probations that my job has been put under recently," she explains. "I may own this company and be making plenty of money on it, but she seems to have powers of picking out my bad qualities."

"The probations weren't your fault," insists Nick. "Project Eternity .2 was nowhere near completion. They knew that."

"Yet they still seemed to enjoy making me look bad. And if I look bad in other peoples' eyes, it's almost guaranteed that my mother will see me as twice that. You haven't met her. And that's not even going into her insistence that I 'find myself a man'." Katherine makes air quotes with her fingers, looking defeated. "My sister already has a firm relationship; she's engaged to some actor or other."

"Have you called them back yet?" her colleague wants to know.

"No," she retorts, flashing a somewhat uneasy look at her phone, sitting innocently on her desk by her work laptop. "What would I say? 'Yeah, I'd love you to come around this weekend. Why not?' Cause that would totally convince them that I haven't been intentionally avoiding any contact with them and them me for the last three years."

"Well, you've always been good at lying," he points out.

Katherine considers this. "There is that, I guess."

"Just say you're – tied up with work," he suggests.

"They're already on their way," moans Katherine, rubbing an eyelid with the heel of her palm. "I can't stop them now."

Nick considers for a long moment. "Okay, new plan. You may not be able to get rid of them, but you could try getting them to finally appreciate something in your life. Like… you said your mother wants you to find yourself a man?"

Katherine gives him a strange, sideways look. "What are you suggesting?"

 _No going back now._ "I could… try and pretend to be your – um – significant other for the weekend?"

She hadn't been expecting that. "You could?" she verifies, eyes widened slightly as she tries to deduce whether he's telling the truth.

Nick swallows the rest of his nerve. "I could," he confirms.

"How good are you at acting?"

"I think I was Joseph in my Year 2 Nativity play once," he guesses.

"Good enough, I suppose." The woman thinks about it for a long moment, then apparently makes a decision and flashes him a grateful look. "Okay. Let's give it a go. Thanks for this, Nick."

"No problem," Nick assures her, though he's already slightly dreading the weekend's encounter. He's not sure how qualified he is to pretend to be someone's partner, especially not with his boss. He didn't even do the real thing tremendously well.

But Katherine doesn't look so worried any more as she seats herself back behind her desk, and Nick reasons that it has to be worth a try, at least to help her out.


	7. Greying

**Greying**

"Look!" Katherine almost races out of her office, skidding to an abrupt halt in her blue high heels and staring at Nick a metre or so away from his office desk as she gestures to her head with both hands.

"What am I – supposed to be looking at, exactly?" Nick wonders aloud, glancing up from the blueprint that he's sketching out with a well-used pencil.

"Look!" Katherine repeats, not incredibly helpfully. "It's awful!"

Nick is dimly aware that he's not keeping up with this exchange. "Um –" he tries, wishing he could read minds. Even one mind in particular would do; he might get into less office altercations that way.

His superior gives an exaggerated roll of her eyes. "Are you blind?" she demands, moving closer to him and pushing her hair forward, pointing with a purple-polished nail into the midst of it. "Look - a grey hair! I saw it in the mirror."

Nick frowns, studying Katherine's scalp. "I don't see anything," he informs her. "Just dark brown, Katherine. Your usual hair colour."

"It's there!" Katherine pulls out one tiny strand of hair from where it nestles within the rest of her dark locks, and Nick can finally see that it is indeed a light silvery colour.

"One grey hair. Wow," he comments drily, turning his attention back to his work and picking up the tiny stub of pencil again to continue drawing.

"I'm thirty-seven! I'm not supposed to be going grey!" laments Katherine.

"Lucky you. I got my first grey hair at twenty-two," Nick informs her. "It's only one grey hair, Katherine, it's hardly a big deal."

"Well, it's the start of it all, isn't it?" Katherine even looks vaguely panicked. "You have one grey hair one day, then you wake up the next and you have two! It's just a steady decline from here on in. My life is officially on the path downhill."

"It was bound to happen eventually. You don't even have kids – that speeds the greying up tenfold," Nick says wisely. "Try having to deal with Eve's shenanigans on a daily basis. Not to mention now having two teenagers in the house, as well as keeping up with my career. And you think you get stressed."

"It's this career. It's driven me to this!" Katherine announces dramatically, not listening to Nick's woes. "Being nearly killed in my own office twice in the last year or so has aged me by years!"

"Grey hairs aren't a sign of aging. Just call it – maturing," Nick advises hopefully, hoping she will leave him alone if he can reassure her enough. So far it's not working incredibly well.

"Oh God, I'm an old woman. I'm going grey," Katherine repeats empathetically. "Soon I'll be white-haired, sitting in my comfy armchair knitting endless cosies for things that don't need to _be_ cosy and watching reruns of _Deal or No Deal._ "

Nick coughs. "I watch that sometimes," he admits.

Katherine throws a hand out in his direction, an accusing finger. "See? This is what I mean! I'm slowly turning into _you_!"

Her co-worker chuckles, somewhat affronted. "And is that such a bad thing, I wonder?"

"Yes," Katherine decides, not a trace of doubt in her tone. "I'm off to get the hair dye."

"Bye," Nick tries as his boss races off again, a scandalised look on her face.


	8. Home

**Home**

"We're home!"

Nick pushes his way through the door behind his called greeting, Katherine just behind him, shrugging off her blazer. Once, it would have been an awkward feeling, stepping through the Clarkes' front door, feeling like an intruder into their closely-knit family life. But now it's almost an automatic motion to follow Nick to his car when he inquires quietly at the end of the day whether she wants to come around for dinner at their house.

Abe's flopped on the Clarke's sofa as he seems to be so often now, playing on his phone, while Lily, Will and Eve appear to be having a heated discussion up at the table about whether they should invite Cain to the lake on their planned family trip out on Saturday. Will turns and smiles vaguely at his dad by way of greeting, his eyes flickering to Katherine and nodding almost imperceptibly, which Katherine curtly returns.

Nick takes her blazer and his coat, hanging them up on the coat rack in the hallway, before heading in to inquire after his son's day, as is customary of him to do. "So how was your day, Will?" he asks on cue, laying a hand briefly on Will's shoulder.

Will mumbles something. "M'okay, yeah," he tells Nick nondescriptly, before launching back into his tirade about Cain apparently not being 'trustworthy enough', or something.

Nick rolls his eyes at Will's adamancy, and Katherine chuckles lightly as both adults shake their heads. "We're planning a fishing trip – if it's not raining on Saturday," Nick explains. "You should come if you fancy it."

 _Reasons why she can't possibly attend. Go._ "Well, as great as that sounds, I don't really think it's for me. I have no idea how to fish, for one thing," Katherine says, somewhat relieved that she does actually have a valid excuse.

"I can teach you how. You'll never learn if you never try, after all," Nick counters immediately.

 _Oh. Well, that scuppers that argument._ "Um –" she starts, caught out momentarily. "I don't have any equipment!" she tries hopefully.

"We have lots. You can borrow a rod, that's no problem."

 _Damn. Foiled again._

"Besides, I wouldn't want to intrude on anything," Katherine says – realising too late that she's stuttering. Katherine Calvin doesn't _stutter._ "It's your family time, not work time."

Nick gestures. "This – this isn't you intruding on family time. Has there been any mention of work so far? No. Lily's coming, and she's not family. And really, I think you might need the break. Right, guys?"

There's a chorus of vague affirmatives from around the living room, although Abe is still engrossed in Tetris on the sofa, and Will is apparently trying to list all the reasons that Cain shouldn't join them on the fishing trip, omitting only the jealousy factor, which Lily is trying to argue against.

Katherine flushes. Seriously, this is ridiculous. What is going on with her body, betraying her like this? "Well it's your family trip," she tries to say – stuttering again.

"Well, you practically live here anyway," comes an audible mutter from behind her. Katherine swings around, sending a death stare at the unfortunate owner of the voice.

"What?!" complains Abe at the scathing glare that is now directed at him. "You're like here three or four times a week anyway! Why don't you just move in or something?"

Nick coughs. "He's right, you know," he says gruffly, not elaborating much further on the subject before he heads into the kitchen. "So you're coming on Saturday? Great. I'll go put some pasta on."

Katherine finds herself smiling oddly at the man's back as he disappears into the next room, before flashing her gaze around the lounge, slowly taking it all in. It's very different from her own business-like, clinically clean apartment where even the cushions are colour co-ordinated with the curtains and there's not a personal photo to be seen. Nick's house is very different: his wallpaper is practically made up of family photos, and there is pretty much random clutter everywhere. But it's somehow more – right, that way.

Maybe this wouldn't be such a bad place to call home.


	9. Ill

**Ill**

"Who is it?"

Her voice still has the sharpness to it that he recognises, though her voice is slightly quieter and noticeably croakier than normal. Katherine even looks faintly surprised when she sees who it is hovering in the doorway. "Oh, it's you," is her only snide comment.

"Glad you're pleased to see me," Nick mutters under his breath, rolling his eyes at Katherine's customary bluntness.

"I thought you might be one of my elusive family members," Katherine murmurs as her only reply, showing no sign that she had heard his sarcasm. As Nick hesitantly makes his way a little further into the room, he's fairly sure he hears her mutter something which sounds suspiciously like: 'Fat chance of that,' under her breath, but he doesn't push the subject.

Katherine looks awful. To his slight amusement, she's still wearing the normal suit he always sees her in every day at work, though her usually immaculate hairstyle is slightly dishevelled and her face is deathly pale. As Nick approaches the sofa, she tries to swing her legs around so she's sitting up in her usual erect posture, but it's evidently a struggle. Katherine coughs, trying to stop herself with a hand angled over her mouth but not really succeeding. Nick has to smile as she throws a glare up at him as if to accuse him of pitying her.

"I'm not sick," Katherine insists, though her argument isn't helped by the fact she breaks down in yet another of those dratted coughing fits just a moment later.

Nick looks sceptical. "Right," he agrees, evidently not convinced in the slightest. "Are you feeling okay, other than apparently not being ill?"

"Fine," she lies. "Completely –" Her voice decides that now would be a good time to vanish into nothing more than a hoarse whisper, and it takes a moment or two to try and speak audibly again. "Fine," she completes eventually, not sounding like she particularly believes it herself any more.

"Hmm," is all Nick says in response. Katherine sighs, knowing she's just managed to prove

exactly the point she was trying to argue against. It couldn't be helped now, anyway.

"Did you try and get up to go to work?" Nick wonders aloud after a moment of looking around the small but comfortable apartment, gesturing with a wave to her outfit.

Katherine huffs, trying to straighten the creases in her blazer with a half-hearted hand. "Yes. Sitting at home achieves nothing."

"Apart from recovering," Nick points out in slight exasperation with his boss' customary stubbornness. "What made you change your mind?"

"Well, finding myself doubled over in the bathroom around two minutes after I attempted standing up kind of made my decision for me," Katherine says bitterly.

"Fun." Nick remembers times like that with his own son at a younger age only too well.

Katherine finds another coughing fit making its way to her throat. "I hate being ill," she comments somewhat randomly when she finally remembers how to breathe again.

"Doesn't everyone?"

"You should leave," his boss tells him adamantly, her voice once again barely above a whisper as she forces the words out of her now-burning throat. "You'll get ill as well."

"Eh, I've got a strong immune system," dismisses Nick instantly. "Anyway, you can barely sit up, let alone do anything around the house. I'm staying here."

Katherine finally gives up on her half-hearted attempt to sit straight as her arms threaten to give out underneath her, and settles back down under the blanket, propping herself up with cushions at one end of the sofa and curling her legs underneath her. She gestures with a vague wave for Nick to sit at the other end. "If you get ill," she warns, though there's no venom in her tone - she doesn't really want him to leave, though she'll never admit it - "You know you've only got yourself to blame."

"I think I can cope with that." Nick accepts the offer and perches on the opposite end of the sofa, dislodging some of the balled-up tissues that lie around the seat and settling down in companionable silence.

"Hmm," it's Katherine's turn to murmur in vague agreement, as she curls her legs further to her end of the sofa in an attempt to conserve some body heat. It's ridiculous. One minute she's wandering around the house, her skin burning to the touch, feeling like she's somehow stumbled into some kind of volcanic zone; now she can't stop from compulsively shivering, despite the hot water bottle that she has tucked inside her blazer and the thick blanket that she's huddled under. Stupid body.

"Do you feel like anything to eat?" Nick ventures after a minute or so.

"Honestly? No." Katherine frowns to herself, huddling further under the warm blanket that she seems to rely on to hide her compulsive shivering at the moment. "I haven't been able to keep anything except the occasional sip of water down since last night."

"Well." Nick gets to his feet with renewed determination. "I'll go make something for you. Can I use a couple of things in your kitchen?"

"Knock yourself out," yawns Katherine. "Though I told you, I'm not hungry."

"This isn't food," is the only clue Nick gives. "You'll like this, I promise." And he shuffles off into the kitchen, where Katherine hears some distant clattering as her employee searches for things in her cupboards. What a strange day this has turned out to be.

Nick returns around five minutes later with a couple of mugs, setting one triumphantly down in front of Katherine. Katherine peers into the anonymous yellow-tinged liquid critically. "What is it?" she inquires hoarsely, suspicion in her tone.

"Try it," Nick orders, not really answering her question.

Katherine figures he wouldn't really try to poison her, not if he's apparently looking after her in her state of sickness, and sips experimentally, raising her eyebrows after a few seconds in which she assesses the drink's taste. "It's lemony," she says eventually. "And hot."

"Honey and lemon," Nick finally informs her, sitting back down and taking a long sip from his own cup, full nearly to the brim with what both looks and smells distinctly like coffee. "It's amazing for sore throats and clearing the sinuses, that sort of thing."

Katherine feels it soothing her throat as she takes another sip, almost smiling as the sweet taste fills her taste buds. "It's good," she murmurs croakily. "Is there any more?"

"Well, you don't have any more lemons in your fridge, but I can easily pop out and get some more if you want," offers Nick immediately.

Katherine swings her gaze up from the mug to meet his eyes, this simple offer bringing with it a million confused queries. "Why are you here?" she asks directly. "Why would you do this for me?" She's never been one for beating around the bush, and she's openly curious. Why would Nick - who, after all, had never exactly seen eye-to-eye with her, and who is really only one of her co-workers – offer to go and get lemons for her, and visit her when she's ill in the first place?

Nick looks awkward. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay, really," he answers haltingly. "You're never sick. And I figured you might like some company, since you've mentioned before that you're not particularly close to any of your family."

Katherine chuckles bitterly, though her laugh ends in a cough, as everything seems to do at the moment. "Well, that's certainly true. Like they'd come round to help me."

Nick looks sympathetic, though he doesn't really understand, not really. He's always had his family around him, and they've always been close. He's even still close to his ex-wife, of all people.

"Well – thank you, Nick," Katherine finally says as she drains the last of the drink from the cup, setting it back on the low coffee table a metre or so in front of her. She doesn't just mean for the drink, either, and she thinks he understands that.

"Any time, Katherine." Nick replies quietly, that same small smile on his face. "I'll go out and get those lemons now. Back in five."

And as she hears the click of the apartment door from the hall just after Nick leaves the room, she realises that even despite her shivers, her raw throat and her wracking, painful coughs that constitute her irritating illness, she is suddenly feeling better than she has felt all day.


	10. Jokes

**Jokes**

"And next, we have Dr. Katherine Calvin to give us a presentation on the mission statement of her company, Calimov." The man – sporting a gelled black hairstyle and a dark blue tie – gestures Katherine up to the whiteboard with very little trace of friendliness in his smile.

Feeling oddly nervous, though that may be mostly down to the fact nearly everyone in the room is a millionaire at least twice over, Katherine gets up from her seat next to Nick – who gives her a cheery thumbs-up, as if this fact doesn't bother him at all – and heads for the front of the room. How she wishes she had forced Nick to run the presentation for her.

"Hello. My name is Katherine Calvin, and I run a technology-based company called Calimov."

They've heard of it. Murmurs come from around the room, and Katherine sees a few people give her PowerPoint a dark look. She needs to make her presentation count. Calimov has not been getting good results recently, mostly due to the whole Mary situation, and of course, as the boss, it's her job to rectify this.

"Can you tell us about the recent – problems that have been troubling Calimov?" a woman on the back row calls politely, halfway through her presentation, just as Katherine is beginning to be able to breathe. "For example, the unexpected resurfacing of the supposedly deceased Mary Douglas - who then proceeded to nearly take you and your company down with her."

Katherine throws an annoyed look at the woman responsible for the query. Great. They're already picking out obvious holes in her argument. Already.

"Well, as I'm sure you've all heard, we've been having some issues with some of Calimov's experiments recently. But I can assure you that we're working to solve these issues around the clock." Katherine gives the room a flashy smile that she hopes is confident enough. "Though honestly, there's not much we could have done at the time to avoid the issues we ran into, despite all the planning we put into it. Hey, as I always say, no amount of advance planning will ever replace dumb luck! Am I right…?" Katherine's voice trails off as she scans her audience for any sign of anyone having. Stony faces are her only reply.

That joke was definitely in the category of "wrong things to say during an important business presentation".

The only sound that breaks the awkward silence is a splutter from the front row.

Nick tries to straighten out his expression as the woman sitting on the other side of him gives him an uncertain look, though he lets out another strangled giggle before he manages to shut himself up. _Not helping, Nick._

"It wasn't that funny," Katherine grumbles under her breath as she taps one high heel against the floor, sat back down next to Nick two minutes later. A smiley woman stands talking loudly about her own oh-so-successful company up at the front. Two smartly-dressed men are nodding at a point she's just made from a couple of rows back, their expressions very different to the sceptical looks on their faces during Katherine's presentation.

"It made sense in our context," Nick points out hopefully.

Katherine sighs. "Yeah, and _that's_ a great result in a room full of important businesspeople that I really needed to make a good impression on. One laugh. From my co-worker. Who probably wouldn't understand a sophisticated sense of humour if it hit him in the face."

"That's the last time I laugh at any of your jokes," Nick mutters darkly.


	11. Kindness

_A/N) Eve's going to hopefully be back for Series 3. Yay! And I finally got around to writing some more of this. Yay!_

 **Kindness**

There's a hissed intake of breath as Nick passes the door of Katherine's office, swinging slightly ajar. Naturally, being a curious type and a scientist to boot, Nick pokes his head through the doorway, curious as to what he's just heard. Therefore, he just catches a glimpse of Katherine grimacing, apparently in pain, as she presses one hand to her waist. "Katherine?" he asks automatically, giving himself away.

"Hmm?" Katherine turns, a fraction of pain in her expression before she straightens it out, turns it into her customary narrowed-eye frown that she directs at him. "Did you want something?" she demands.

"You okay?" the scientist wants to know. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she replies shortly. "Don't you have work to do?" Case closed. As usual.

He's not falling for it this time. "There is something. You were wincing." At her vehement shake of the head, denying it, Nick throws her a pointed look. "I'm not stupid, Katherine. What's wrong?"

"I don't need your kindness, Nick," Katherine informs him sharply. Her hand is still pressed to her side, though, and Nick moves closer across the room almost without realising his movement. Katherine realises her mistake and drops her palm from the spot creasing her blazer, trying to look innocent.

"Tell me," Nick insists.

The woman rolls her eyes, evidently annoyed at his persistence; she pulls awkwardly at her collar as some sort of delaying tactic that doesn't fool Nick in the slightest. "It's nothing. Just from where the –" Katherine hesitates, almost spitting the words out as she completes the sentence. "Where the - spiderbot electrocuted me, when Mary was controlling it."

"Oh." It's all he can say. Nick remembers that day very well. He remembers the fear in his usually aloof superior's eyes, when she uncharacteristically appealed to him for help, and he just walked away. Nick hadn't even considered the fact that Katherine had been injured by Mary's spiderbot in the attack. At the time he had just assumed it had been a scaremonger's tactic, like most of Mary's threats, to frighten Katherine into submission. Of course, he was fully justified to ignore his colleague's pleas at that point; she had been trying to take Eve apart, and they hadn't seen Mary for what she really was yet. Anyway, Katherine had never spoken about that moment again, and Nick had gratefully seconded that.

Katherine coughs, remembering herself. "As I said, it's nothing," she dismisses, her frown deepening as she glares at Nick. "Get back to work."

"Does it still hurt?" Nick asks softly, ignoring the command.

In response, Katherine simply lifts the rim of her light blue shirt slightly, revealing a scar at her slim waistline that Nick recognises - from his limited medical knowledge required to bring up a boy - as a burn. "The doctor says a third degree burn takes a while to heal. It's still healing," she explains vaguely, dropping the material and concealing the injury again.

"I'm sorry," Nick says, aware that his apology is around three months too late.

Katherine neatly avoids his eyes. "It's not your fault," she mutters, turning away and clearly indicating the conversation is closed as she stares distantly at her desk.

It is his fault, of course, but Nick can only smile wanly at his superior and head back to his own desk, guilt pooling in the bottom of his stomach as he slips heavily into the padded cushion of his chair, not wanting to look back up at where Katherine sits alone in her office for fear the feeling of responsibility intensifies.


	12. Locked

**Locked**

It had all been going rather well, considering.

Since her office computer had overloaded itself yesterday for reasons unknown (but who Katherine strongly suspected to be a certain artificial teenager's fault) Katherine had been forced to look for alternative means of completing her work while a scruffy IT girl worked on bringing her computer back to working order. Luckily, it was Nick's day off today – he seemed to have an ever-increasing amount of those, come to think of it – and he had rather gallantly offered her the use of his laptop to finish off the reports that she had luckily already backed up on the Calimov mainframe. Ideal, really. Nick had briefly come in, unlocked his laptop for her then left, actually smiling as the doors slid smoothly shut behind him.

But, as so often happens when you're the boss, Katherine had been briefly called out to attend to a question from the finance department. When she finally got back nearly half an hour later, not in the best of moods, the laptop screen was blank and her half-finished work was locked away behind a password protected lock screen. Damn.

Nick's static face seems to look smugly at her from the screen as Katherine irritably wakes the dormant computer up with a brisk shake of the mouse – an image of him, Eve and Will grinning mindlessly at the camera as they gesture to a large moving wheel in the background. Katherine remembers Nick telling her that Eve had been eager to try out one of these 'funfairs', so he had taken the two teenagers along a couple of weeks ago. As normal, Eve had been captivated by everything. She had pulled the Clarkes along to go on the big wheel no less than four times, and now stood in the photo beaming as widely as ever.

"Oh – shut up," Katherine now tells her co-worker's face sulkily as the computer demands a password from her. "You should have told me your password before you left."

It's probably going to be something sappy, knowing Nick. His son's name, or his birthday, or something.

It's neither of those.

Nick's not answering his phone either. Katherine lets out a frustrated sigh, drumming her fingers on the surface of his desk as the third call slips to answerphone and she ends it. When he finally gets around to switching his phone on, he'll doubtlessly receive seven angry texts inquiring first as to what his password is and second as to why the stupid man never has his phone on.

So now what does she do?

With a lack of password cracking software on this rather primitive computer, that option is unfortunately out. Katherine suspects that he hasn't left his password as 'Rebecca' since the last time she forcibly tried to hack into his laptop. She tries it anyway, somewhat half-hearted. Nope.

If anyone had been listening from outside the empty room, they would have heard Katherine's frustrated intake of breath three minutes later as she hits the keyboard with her palm. She has tried everything. Birthdays. Eternity. Places. She's trying to think of any more names that Nick would possibly choose to lock his laptop with. All of this, of course, is just scraping the surface of possibilities. For all she knows, it could be a random collection of numbers and letters, like the computer always suggests first-off to make it more secure. There again, when has she or Nick ever taken orders from computers? Not always a good idea, in their line of work.

WillClarke.

EveClarke.

NickClarke.

RebeccaClarke.

Nope. Absently, Katherine finds herself typing her own name into the password bar, while discreetly wondering if she can fire Nick for having a password that she can't hack into. Doubtful. Even that's pretty trivial, even by her past standards.

Well, it was worth a try.

Katherine's eyebrows shoot up as the lock screen suddenly vanishes, replaced by the Word document which she had previously been working on and had been desperately trying to get back to for the last five minutes. At the same point, her phone buzzes under her listless hand: a text notification informing her that Nick has texted her 2.6 seconds ago, probably containing the elusive password that she had just unwittingly guessed.

Her colleague's password is her name. Um - okay.

 _A/N) Couldn't resist a 'when you're the boss' comment XD Poor Katherine._


	13. Meetings

**Meetings**

"Oy, you."

Katherine gives her newfound boss a poke in the side, at which Nick coughs and jerks upright in his office chair, blinking blearily at the dull office room that he had come to sit down in over fifteen minutes ago. "No sleeping during meetings," she instructs severely. "It's not good form for a CEO, I've learnt."

"I wasn't asleep," her co-worker lies, his voice rough.

Katherine rolls her eyes. She's very good at it. It's an art which she's had the spare time and the right job to perfect over the years. "Yeah, right. Anyway, if I have to stay awake through this drivel, therefore so do you."

"Yes, boss," sighs Nick somewhat sarcastically, settling back into his seat and folding his arms over his chest.

Katherine casts him a sharp glance at the comment, but unusually doesn't retort.

"This is taking for-ev-er," The second-in-command complains under her breath two minutes later, drawing out the last word for added emphasis. "What do they seriously have to tell us that's so important that we have to wait around while they 'get some things ready'?"

"The Board has never been particularly welcoming towards any Calimov managers, have they?" Nick noted. "And we've never exactly been their favourite people in the world either."

"They probably enjoy making us wait," Katherine summarised.

"Ever since the spiderbot incident last year –"

"And the recent PRICE/government scandal."

"Not to mention the childbots that _you_ created –"

Katherine shoots another slightly accusing look at Nick at the reminder. "Yes, I'm fully aware that it's me the Board is really against, not angelic Nick Clarke, new CEO."

Nick actually half-smiles, although a frowning Katherine doesn't return it. "I've been your accomplice too many times for me to get away scot-free," he points out.

"They still made you permanent CEO, implying they must trust you to an extent more than me," reasons the woman bitterly.

"Well, that wouldn't be difficult."

For the third time, Katherine's gaze directs itself swiftly at Nick, irritation plain in her expression. "I didn't think you were one to boast, Nick."

"Maybe I'm getting more like you now I'm the CEO."

"No need to remind me." Katherine crosses her arms moodily, returning her gaze to the floor as they continue to wait for the meeting to begin – which doesn't look likely any time soon.

 _A/N) The first one I've written set in Series 3, just short but full of typical Katherine resentment at Nick, the new CEO ;)_


	14. Noise

**Noise**

"I swear, Nick..."

Her co-worker whistles along to an irritatingly upbeat tune as Nick's car speaker belts one of its usual tasteless indie songs over the radio. Katherine scowls sullenly at the traffic outside the passenger window as the car slows, the red of the traffic light glinting off the windscreen. "Can we please turn that off?" she requests for what might be the third or fourth time since they had set off merely twenty minutes ago from her apartment building in the town centre.

Nick stares innocently at the car in front, tapping out an accompanying rhythm on the steering wheel with a finger. "I like it."

"I don't."

Nick shrugs with a vaguely cheerful smile. "My car, my radio. Therefore - my choice of what station. Sorry, Katherine, but you have no power to make me change my mind."

"I never saw you as a fan of indie music, Nick," she muses grouchily, slumping lower in the car seat, resting her chin on a fist. "Still, I guess I should have seen it coming. The cardigans were the obvious hint. And the hair."

"Hey!" Nick fingers the wispy hair at his chin that just about passes for a weak excuse of a beard, in Katherine's brutal opinion. "What's wrong with my clothing style?"

"The same thing that's wrong with your taste in music."

"Which you still haven't explained to me."

"It's just –" Katherine pulls a face, trying to find an apt enough description. "Noise," she concludes.

He chuckles with raised eyebrows, turning the car left onto a slightly less busy road. "My music is _noise_?"

"That pretty much sums it up, yes," she decides.

Nick grins as the tune comes to an end, replaced by another, even more annoying song, if that was possible. Katherine sighs, the temptation to hit and deactivate the car radio growing tenfold. "Remind me again why I'm in this car three times a week?"

"It saves us both money," notes Nick.

"Oh yeah, and we're definitely short of that right now. CEO."

Nick pulls awkwardly at his tie at his collar. "Honestly, I miss my comfortable jumpers. And even the lab coat, sometimes. Is there actually a rule saying that the CEO has to wear suits?"

"I miss my business suits," comments Katherine wistfully.

"And that is where you and I definitely differ." Nick twists the wheel right, veering the car into Calimov's familiar carpark and scanning it for parking spaces. "There you go: another work journey where you haven't killed me or my radio."

"Though it's my turn tomorrow, and then woe betide you," threatens Katherine. "I will put Carly Rae Jepson on until 'Call Me Maybe' drives us both to insanity or possibly tears."

"Good thing it's Saturday tomorrow then, right?"

Katherine growls under her breath as Nick swings his legs out of the driver's door and begins to head across the carpark, whistling cheerfully under his breath as she's forced to break into a strange heeled scuttle to follow him.


	15. Online

_A/N) This is a suggestion from Saltedcaramelpie, where Katherine Googles her name online and gets upset, so Nick's there to comfort her. Thank you for all your ideas, guys, it's really useful to a slow idealess brain like mine sometimes XD Anyway, enjoy!_

* * *

 **Online**

It had been easy to ignore it all when she was in charge.

Of course, like every major business, Calimov had critics, and the recent popularity of PRICE organisations had led to a _lot_ of criticism of their technological choices. Katherine had always known she was disliked as a businessperson in charge of a major corporation, especially due to her more callous approach to leadership , that some may call immoral. But being the boss used to have its perks, and she had tended to be too busy managing the company and chivvying its employees to ever have to sit and think over anything too extensively.

Maybe that had been the problem. .

Nick is right, of course. She is accustomed to 'sweeping it all under the carpet', maybe because that's the only way to not be swept under with it.

But now she's just another employee, and it's much more difficult to keep her mind focused completely on the task in hand. The work she's put to is often menial, not really requiring much concentration, and it leaves far too much time for thought as she sits of an afternoon, leaning back absently coding a circuit board of some description, whilst trying to source an angle of some comfort in the steel-backed chair.

And staring at the blank screen of the computer on her desk – wondering.

Of course, she eventually caves.

A search for her name originally brings up few results. Katherine discreetly angles the screen away from the window of Nick's office, although unless he's just recently acquired super long-range vision akin to his niece's, it's highly unlikely he'd be able to make out the contents of the screen even if he was looking in her direction. There's not much of interest: a few Facebook profiles of other Katherine Calvins she might be interested in, a news story about a Catherine Calkin who apparently survived a bear attack last June, a few etymology websites about the origins of her name. Nothing out of the ordinary. Katherine breathes out slightly; at least she's still not headline news worthy of a Google search. It would be nice to be famous, but not for a bad reputation.

She narrows the search. 'Katherine Calvin Calimov' she types into the search bar.

Now Google's interested. Several articles pop up immediately, some titles familiar from the newspapers which Nick had repeatedly shoved in her face over the last few weeks. Some are from around the time of the childbot incident, some more recently. Intrigued despite something deep in her mind screaming at her to just leave it, Katherine forces herself to click on one that has just popped up twenty minutes ago. 'Katherine Calvin Ruins Company' it announces, on a similar thread to many others. She scoffs at the far from impartial title, although dread has settled in her stomach and the back of her throat and refuses to go away.

She only realises there are tears in her eyes by the time she reaches the end of the sixth article.

Katherine wonders what she had really been expecting as she furiously scrubs at her eyelids, dispelling the moisture and swallowing back the burning sensation in her mouth. Maybe she had just been curious as to what the world actually thought of her – even hopeful, perhaps. The articles are all the same, really: expressing horror at the childbot incident, exulting in her fall from power that is apparently now public knowledge, damning her egotism and cruelty and abject lack of morality that has brought her up to the top of the company and kept her there. Really, Katherine reflects as a single tear escapes her vehement hand and begins its steady path down her cheek, it had just set her up further to fall.

"Katherine?"

She spins abruptly, scrabbling at the mouse to cancel the tabs she had open on the search browser before Nick sees them. Her superior comes out of his office, forehead creasing in confusion and then concern as he takes in the tearful expression on Katherine's face. "Katherine?" he repeats, coming closer.

Katherine glances back at the screen and with a jolt realises she hasn't been able to successfully close the search browser in her urgent state. Nick reads the screen and her face simultaneously – of _course_ he does – and realisation comes onto his own features as he obviously figures out what Katherine has been doing. "Katherine," he says a third time, although this tone is laced with sympathy instead of authority.

"I'm fine," mutters Katherine, her voice cracking in the middle of even the short sentence so it's not terribly convincing.

"You shouldn't read that stuff," Nick tells her softly. "That's not constructive criticism at all, that's just hate. Pointless, ineffectual hate."

"It's all true," Katherine points out, realising too late that there's still tears in her eyes and hating that Nick can see them. "I created the childbots out of my own greed and carelessness. My attitude to running this company has always been immoral. There's nothing in those articles that is a surprise to anybody. Especially not you. Don't even think of denying it."

Nick falters. He had obviously been considering denying it, but having voiced those same opinions to her previously, there is no real point. Instead he comes and sits down in the chair next to her, reading the last few lines of the article with a quick scan of the screen. "They paint you like some sort of devil here," he tries weakly with an attempt at a chuckle to try and make Katherine join in.

She just stares at the keyboard. "Funny," she says bitterly.

Nick senses a change of tack is needed. "You know they're wrong about you," he reasons. "Maybe some of the things they say are true, but you don't deserve all that. No-one does."

"I deserve everything they say and more."

"Rubbish." Nick's voice is surprisingly passionate, although still lowered to as not to attract too much attention. Katherine is oddly grateful for that; if anyone passes their workstation they will just assume Nick and Katherine are working on a project together like they normally do. "You know the media, they get hold of an idea then they spin it up and make it into something huge and exaggerated to get maximum interest. Since you were the one to take the forefront of the blame for all Calimov's mistakes over the last year or so, you're the weakest and therefore the obvious choice to target."

Katherine finally allows herself to meet his eyes, moisture glistening on her lashes which she wipes away angrily. "But they're right, Nick, don't you see? I have led this company into all its mistakes and I _didn't care._ They call me heartless; they're right."

"But you read these articles now and you care," her colleague says sensibly. "How can that show you're heartless, really? You may have _been_ all of those things, but right now you're just Katherine. Katherine who has the innate ability to annoy me to no end, that's as may be, but those journalists don't know anything about you. Not like your friends do. So, no more reading articles online or otherwise. Okay?"

After a long pause and a prompting look from Nick, Katherine nods and clicks the cross on the browser, finally hiding the incriminating article from view. "Okay," she says in a tiny voice, actually meaning it. Somehow, she always finds herself believing Nick's calm assurances, though she doesn't really know why.

Nick nods again, pushing her hand off the mouse and using his own to open up a Word document, for some unexplained reason, before typing seven words onto the blank page. "Good," he replies simply, before getting up, walking back to his office door and disappearing behind it. Katherine stares somewhat disbelievingly at the screen that he left behind. Tears continue to sting her eyes, but for a different, inexplicable reason this time. Maybe the same reason that the hand Nick touched is still tingling oddly.

 _Katherine Calvin is not a bad person._


	16. Party

**Party**

Katherine doesn't even know why she's here.

Well, actually, she _does_ know why she's here, but she doesn't know why she ever agreed to Nick's pleas for him not to have to be the only one not drinking obscene amounts of alcohol at the annual Calimov Christmas party that Katherine had always made a conscious effort to avoid upon all costs, even when she was CEO and was obliged to attend such events.

Curse Nick and his sad eyes.

And now she's standing as close to the door of the presentation hall as can look natural without actually backing out of it, which is incredibly tempting and getting more so as the night progresses. Disco lights flash overhead, their bright colours half blinding her whenever she happens to look up. _Honestly, disco lights – this is a company party, not a night club._ She recognises some of the half-lit faces dancing in the crowd, but wouldn't be able to name many if asked. Luckily, no-one remarks on her presence or forces her to join the fray; she's definitely not prepared for that sort of commitment to the night.

"This is fun, isn't it?" Nick comments dryly beside her, taking a rather too generous sip from the wine glass he clutches to his chest, having been knocked and almost spilled over his suit countless times. Neither of them has made any attempt to try and mingle beyond going to get drinks a few minutes ago, although a few people have nodded to or made brief conversation with Nick due to his heightened position at Calimov that does tend to require some degree of social understanding. There has been a sort of mutual agreement between them ever since they stepped through the doors thirty-seven minutes ago that _no,_ this is not the environment for them, and _yes,_ it is much safer to stand aside by the wall as several of the more decorous or self-conscious employees in the company are opting for.

"Depends on your definition," mutters Katherine, irritably straightening out the creases in the knee-length blue dress she wears and wishing she had tied her hair up: the tangible heat in the room is causing it to uncomfortably stick to her face and neck, however much she brushes it back.

"You'll need to teach me some of the excuses you've used in the past to get out of these parties," Nick tells her loudly as the song ends and another even louder one starts its pounding rhythm through the hall.

"Oh, a party, is that what it is?" Katherine absently wonders aloud. "I was under the impression it was some form of mild torture employed for reclusive scientists to get them to crack and spill all their secrets."

Nick snorts. "You're not far wrong there."

Katherine watches in distain as Phil wanders past them, glasses slightly askew and hair dishevelled as she bobs her way through the crowd in a way that Katherine guesses might be constituted as dancing if you squinted. "Remind me never to go to one of Phil's birthday parties."

"I'm not sure she'd invite you," Nick reasons. "Or me, for that matter."

"What?" Katherine raises her voice over the ever-increasing tempo of the music blasting overhead. _If they deliberately ramp up the volume of those speakers one more time…_

Nick repeats his proclamation and Katherine nods in reply, deciding it's not worth the strain on the voice to try and continue to make conversation, while also wondering when would be an appropriate time to leave. Nothing beside some randomly placed tinsel around the room seems to openly suggest 'Christmas' to her, and Katherine can't help but speculate that the annual party has always just been set up by some stir crazy members of the marketing department who don't fancy going to a real club and figures this is as good a substitute as any.

She's almost made up her mind to go ahead and leave when something tickles her cheek and she jolts in surprise, letting out a squeak that she will vehemently deny later. It turns out just to be Nick, absently brushing a strand of her hair away from her face and tucking it neatly behind her ear, without seeming to be particularly aware of what he's doing until his gaze refocuses and he steps away from her slightly, dropping his hand from her chin and nearly spilling his drink again in the process.

"Um – it looked like it was getting in your eyes," her colleague explains rather too hurriedly, waving a hand around like Katherine has previously noted he always seems to do when he gets stressed.

"Yeah… yeah, thanks," she replies equally as quickly, turning back to survey the area as her cheeks glow inexplicably pink. She'll claim it's just from the uncomfortable heat of the room, she decides. That's the only reason that Katherine Calvin is blushing.

Still, she hasn't left yet.

"Hey, um - do you want to go and dance for a few minutes?" Nick suddenly unexpectedly asks, once again interrupting her inner monologue.

Surprise obviously shows on her face at the suggestion, because Nick flushes even more – _it's the_ _heat, just the heat –_ and starts to gabble, another telltale sign of his stress. "You know –" Nick coughs and says quickly by way of explanation: "The CEO showing willing, and all that."

"I'm not the CEO," Katherine finds herself answering somewhat hoarsely.

"Yes, but - I dragged you here. And unfortunately for me I _am_ the CEO."

"That never stopped me before," comments Katherine. "I don't normally even attend these things, let alone dance at them."

"Yeah, but I promised a few friends I'd show my face here, and –" Nick looks hesitant, but determined as he tilts his head slightly to one side, managing to look apologetic and beseeching at the same time. "Can I drag you into this for me as well? Last thing, I promise. Then we can get out of here and hopefully find some well-earned sleep."

"I'm never doing anything for you ever again," grumbles Katherine by way of complying as she finally allows Nick to take her hand and pull her away from her refuge against the wall, leading her into the crowd of dancing people and thick darkness, broken occasionally by snatches of coloured disco light as the ball rotates above their heads.

"Try explaining that to the Board," Nick shouts in jokey answer as the music intensifies tenfold around them and Katherine wishes that it was socially acceptable to press her hands over her ears to try and block some of the thumping beat out. They find a spot that looks vaguely uninhabited and Nick turns to face Katherine, his face darkened so she can't quite make out his expression. Awkwardly, he slides one hand lightly around her waist and they start to sway slightly to the upbeat music, letting the deafening throb and the multitude of people doing similar dancelike movements all around them hide the acute sense that this situation is completely out of both of their comfort zones. For once, Katherine is actually glad that it's now almost pitch black in the room; it helps her to lean lightly against Nick's shoulder and not worry that anyone might be watching the ex-CEO and the new CEO dance together like they aren't usually at each other's throats most of the time during working daylight hours.

"You enjoying any of this yet?" Nick queries at the top of his voice a few minutes later, when the music has altered yet again and has finally dropped in tempo a little, making it a little easier to breathe and sway more gently to the melodic thrumming of the music.

"Not even remotely!" Katherine yells back.

Well, actually, that isn't quite true either, but she doesn't bother correcting her automatic snarky response. She's not ever likely to admit that she's enjoying dancing with her co-worker at a party with rapid music pulsing overhead; or that she doesn't think to complain when said coworker's arms tighten almost unconsciously around her waist; or that when Nick reaches to brush away another strand of hair almost tenderly from her cheek, she finds a lump in her throat that is suddenly impossible to swallow.

And neither of them stop dancing, even though the whole aim of joining in for a few minutes was to be able to leave the party more readily, and they have both conceded that they're not enjoying the experience one bit.

Definitely not.

 _A/N) I think I just found a new favourite Nick/Katherine image for my mind to obsess over..._

 _And Phil as a wild party animal just seems to be the perfect image in my mind XD_


	17. Quirks

_A/N) Look - a chapter! This is short, but it exists. And it isn't even an April Fools, I'm happy to say :P_

 **Quirks**

There have been many occasions in which Nick has hated Katherine.

Now hate may be a strong word, but there have been many occasions to merit it, if Nick's being honest. Whether they're throwing their typical banter across at each other or face to face yelling at each other - either is equally probable at any one moment if you leave Nick and Katherine in a room together - sometimes Nick genuinely feels hatred for the callous, insensitive and often utterly infuriating woman that he has worked alongside for the last couple of years.

He does have reason for it, to be fair. The amount of times that Katherine has betrayed, undermined or generally exasperated him could be counted on about a million hands. It's only got worse since she was demoted from CEO – he can now add bitterness to the list of her objectionable qualities.

So Nick has never and probably will never understand why sometimes he finds a tiny smile creeping across his face when looking at her.

Sometimes he notices these tiny traits in the most inexplicable of situations. When there's that familiar glint in her sky-blue eyes, often connoting pride in what new device they've created. When they're hurrying through Calimov in search of some component or machine to aid them in their research and Katherine's dark brown hair is unkempt and falling across her face in their rush to get wherever they're going. When both he and Katherine are called in at a weekend and Katherine hasn't had the time or the effort to put on whatever constitutes her usual immaculate style, so he finds her in jeans or a thick hoodie that usually he could never otherwise picture her in. Whereas you'd expect her to look her best when she wore her typical dresses or smart suits – Nick finds himself unable to look away from her when Katherine's hair is up in a scruffy ponytail, her face bare without makeup. She looks softer, almost. Less severe, less unapproachable. More human.

When Katherine's stressed (which they both are quite frequently in their line of work), he has come to notice the very specific flush that colours her cheeks as she races around the lab shouting at various unlucky technicians who accidentally get in her way. The tone of her voice raises to almost screeching pitches, causing Nick and others to wince and roll their eyes at each other. Now she's just another employee, she doesn't have that same authority to stride around yelling at people, but he still sees that same flush stealing up her face when failing to express any silent anger that boils her insides.

And on the rare occasions that he catches his co-worker off guard in a momentary snapshot of peace that is usually so unattainable, Nick finds himself noticing all these little quirks at once about Katherine, much as he may try in vain to ignore them.


	18. Reminder

**Reminder**

 _Which one of your OTP would have their days completely planned out and organized and has a neat little planner that they take everywhere and is never late to their appointments, and which one struggles to remember what month it is much less what they're planning on a particular day?_

"Katherine?"

Nick is wearing his tense face, which doesn't really mean much anymore since he's pretty much always racing around looking utterly stressed out at the moment. He's not dealing as well with the whole CEO thing as Katherine had, she has noted on many previous occasions. Sometimes she catches him looking somewhat enviously at a group of technicians working together on some techy thing. He'd evidently much rather be hands-on, scribbling down a hundred long-winded equations on a whiteboard or designing a new trait chip for one of their AI projects that Katherine herself has now been seconded onto. He's previously expressed to her how much he hates paperwork. Now he's got an abundance of it.

But life is what it is for both of them.

"What's up?" she asks curtly.

Nick wears that slight frown, where you can see the cogs visibly turning in his skull. "I think I might be losing my mind," he confesses.

Katherine raises an eyebrow. "It got that bad?"

"I can prove it," he tells her persistently. "What month is it?"

Katherine smirks. "October."

Nick looks bemused. "Is it?"

"No," Katherine amends, slightly worried for her coworker's sanity now, despite herself. "It's May. Why?"

He shakes his head distractedly. "I just have too much on. It's spilling out of my ears trying to remember it all."

"Maybe get a calendar?" Katherine offers. "I'll add it to the Christmas list."

"Well, that would be fine if it _was_ October," points out the man with a weighty sigh. "No. I should probably make some attempt at organising what I call my life, shouldn't I? Work-life balance is supposed to be somewhat of a priority, after all."

"Work-life balance? What's that?"

He laughs, a thin, weary sound. "True." Nick slides into the seat next to her, spinning it slightly. "I'm not really losing my mind," he confides. "Just a busy week. Not seen my family much."

"Well, it's not showing any signs of letting up any time soon." Katherine accompanies this ominous statement with a meaningful look, referring to their looming company conference with the Board next week, where they pass across all progress reports and get much-needed funding for any new or continued projects that they want to work on. Of course, as the CEO – a new one at that, fresh meat – Nick will undoubtedly have speeches to give and be an integral part of getting their faltering business back on track. It's one aspect of the job that even she won't particularly miss.

Nick only gives her a very blank look.

Katherine's eyebrows shoot up. "You really forgot?" she demands, her voice incredulous.

"No," Nick replies defensively, meaning yes.

"The Calimov conference? The biggest and most crucial event in the calendar – which, oh, I forgot, Nick doesn't own. Trying to get on the good side of the Board so we're not shut down?" Katherine stares almost reproachfully at the scientist. "Ring any bells?"

"Oh, that." Nick's unperturbed tone is quite at odds with the harassed look on his face. "That's the meeting on Tuesday, right?"

"Thursday."

"Yeah, Thursday, Thursday. The April departmental meeting, right?" Nick nods, pulling at mental straws. "See, I know what's going on."

"Still May."

"I knew that!"

Katherine shakes her head doubtfully, making a mental note to find an excuse to go with Nick to the conference, since it was becoming increasingly evident that Calimov would not last long under his woefully incompetent hand. "What would you do without me, Nick?"

"Miss all the boring business stuff I don't want to go to, probably." Nick gives her a tired smile. "Thanks for the reminder anyway, Katherine."

Katherine stifles her own automatic smile, frowns forbiddingly instead. "Get a planner!" she instructs.

"You mean actually attempt to be organised instead of complaining to you about it?" Nick shrugs, rests his shoulder lightly against hers as their office chairs clash. "No, I'll take my chances, thanks."


	19. Space

**Space**

Katherine has always liked her personal space.

Hence why, when Nick comes and places a pile of blueprints and his laptop on one side of the desk, drawing up an office chair alongside her own, she's not best pleased.

"Is this really necessary?" wonders Katherine aloud, staring through her glass window at the chaotic office outside, where Phil is attempting to usher eight or nine bewildered-looking lab-coated scientists into separate chairs, carrying boxes and scientific instruments salvaged from their own department.

Nick only sighs deeply in response as some bearded lab tech claims his desk and slams a box down on it, displacing some of the papers he had forgotten to grab before seeking refuge in Katherine's office.

"That explosion was the fault of the Forensics department anyway," Katherine continues in a tone of complaint. "It doesn't make any sense that _we_ are forced to suffer by sharing _our_ work space with them."

"You're the boss," Nick points out. "Can't you just overrule the Health and Safety department and get them to go somewhere else?"

Katherine pulls a face. "Unfortunately, this is apparently the largest and emptiest area so the only viable space to move an entire department into. Their words, not mine. And they'd probably just sue me if I did demand they go sit outside in the corridor."

"Ah, true." Nick decides to stop watching the chaos outside and instead slides the lid of his laptop open, settles back into the less-than-comfy chair he found in the corridor to Katherine's office, ready to get some work done. Whether that will in fact happen, he's not sure yet.

Half an hour in, he's realised that no, that's not likely to happen any time soon, with him and Katherine in such close proximity.

"Your coffee mug is on my side of the desk!"

Nick groans under his breath, tries not to make a retort that will get him fired as he moves the cup an inch to the left. "Better?"

Katherine hmphs and Nick is fairly sure she shifts her laptop a little closer to the taped-off border of their shared desk, decided around twenty minutes ago when it was clear they were not going to just peacefully share like normal human grown-ups. He reciprocates by pushing his chair ever so slightly closer to hers, to which she narrows her eyes at him, not missing a trick.

Phil hurries her way into their shared office, looking slightly taken aback as both scientists look up at her in unison, fixing her with eerily similar glares. "Oh – hi. I didn't realise we had co-CEOs in charge now."

"We don't," quickly denies Katherine, throwing a meaningful 'don't get any ideas' look sideways at him.

Phil looks even more confused as Nick tries not to glower back at his boss. "Um – okay. I just wanted to tell you that the fire brigade are just leaving and the maintenance team are starting to clear up in Forensics. I also want to apologise – I accept that it was totally my fault and –"

Katherine irritably waves her away. "Oh, stop grovelling. Just tell maintenance to hurry up, I need my own office back."

The relieved scientist scuttles from the room and Nick gets his own back by sliding his chair as close to their self-enforced boundary as possible, so the wheels lock into the ones on his superior's chair. Katherine realises what he's done with a scowl and shoves her own chair into his. "You're on my side!" she repeats, sounding personally insulted.

"Well, why don't you throw me out?" Nick dares her while pushing his chair back in her direction, thoroughly fed up by this point.

"Maybe I will!"

"Well go on then!"

They don't notice Phil re-entering the room until she's standing in the doorway between them, looking startled as Nick and Katherine grapple their office chairs together back and forth and arguing at the very top of their voices. "The Forensics department were just going to ask you to keep it down -?" she asked hesitantly.

Both frozen scientists look at each other, then out of the office window where a whole department is goggling at the fighting pair, formerly chaotic room utterly silent.

If Nick could have ordered a handy black hole to come and swallow him up right now, he guesses that it would probably suck the flushing Katherine right in with him, just so they could bicker their way right to oblivion.

He dreads the day they become co-CEOs.


	20. Trapped

_A/N) A little bit of Nick/Katherine Series 1 bickering, since I never seem to set stories in Series 1 any more. Please enjoy!_

 **Trapped**

"Are you actually kidding me?"

Katherine hits the closed doors with a balled-up fist, a dull thud echoing down the otherwise empty lift shaft. Nick just sighs. He had known when he first got up this morning that today was not going to be a good day, and when he had met up with an already grumpy Katherine in the foyer, before both stepping into the lift together on their way to the first tediously dull meeting of the day (and probably not to be the last), this feeling didn't exactly go away.

And now the lift has broken down. Great.

Half-heartedly, he tries jabbing at a few buttons on the device next to him, but they make no response, the one for the third floor still glowing yellow, since that's where the contraption was supposed to be taking them before it decided to throw a hissy fit and judder to a none-too-healthy-sounding halt just half a minute ago.

His boss is already checking her phone, before holding the screen right up in Nick's face and gesturing wildly at what he guesses is an email scheduling their conference. "Look. The meeting starts at nine, Nick. That's two minutes away. We're going to be _late_."

"Yep."

"Which is _fine_ for you since you're not the main speaker, not being the CEO and all."

"There's not exactly much you can do about it. I'm sure they'll forgive you."

She laughs mirthlessly, slamming her hand against the locked door again and inexplicably trying to prise it open, not that Nick fancies scaling the inside of a lift shaft just to try and get to their meeting on time. "Yeah, _I'm_ sure. Except they've already told me that they're tired of me making excuses. And I'm sorry, but being 'stuck in a lift' isn't exactly the most plausible one yet, Nick."

He can only shrug. "It's the truth."

After a minute of irate silence between the two, Katherine turns once again to meet his eyes, her clenched hand dropping from where she had been about to strike the prone metal for the third time. "What?" she glares. "I'm trying to get us out of here."

"By punching the wall?" Nick asks sceptically.

Her look is, as usual, deadly, especially since she knows he's right. "Have you got any better ideas, then?" she challenges. "I've just tried messaging security, but the signal is down on my phone. Why do I employ these so-called maintenance experts to keep Calimov up and running if things are just going to break down on me?"

"I'll call Zac," Nick sighs, already remembering how the Cuban employee likes to tease him and Katherine about how they always seem to end up alone, just the two of them, usually the result of their other co-workers wanting to be tactful and slipping away when nobody's looking. It's Phil's favourite pastime, in particular. Nick had known it was a bad idea to let Zac and Phil talk to each other, even for just five minutes while he went to get some papers for Katherine. Now it's a fully-fledged inside joke.

"I'm going to find a way to blame this on you if we're late for the meeting," Katherine informs him once Nick's finished the reluctant call to their co-worker, who sounds like he's trying to fight a giggle as he promises to get a maintenance team up to them right away. Probably already composing the hours of teasing that this will provoke. As usual, Katherine is blissfully unaware of their none-too-secret inside joke, but she doesn't look too keen on having to rely on Zac to get them out, of all people. Having given up on brute force, the woman is now leant back against the opposite wall to the one that he's slumped against, clicking her immaculate heels against the floor. "Just so you know."

"I'm always late for meetings, even if I turn up on time," Nick murmurs, with an absent yawn. "I'm just not often there mentally, you know?"

"I hadn't guessed," Katherine responds bitingly.

Of all the people he had to get trapped in a confined space with, it had to be the one person that had the ability to drive him completely up the wall. Nick copies Katherine's glare and they remain in sullen silence for another lengthy minute. Zac doesn't know what he's talking about. There is no way he and Katherine would ever -

Suddenly, as Nick argues with Zac's phantom smirking face, there's a cranking sound and both technicians straighten up as the lift slowly begins to jerk upwards again. Katherine's look of surprise is rare and quite enjoyable. "So it seems we're not to be trapped in a lift forever after all."

"Five minutes is hardly forever, Katherine," Nick responds, though he's also relieved. Much longer, and he would have probably called Eve and got her to have a little chat with the lift, even though his main goal was to try and protect her secret from Katherine. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and he could have always asked her to keep the CEO locked in there…?

She shoots another look at him, as if to remind him that their predicament is still somehow his fault, despite the fact she can't read minds. Nick hopes she can't read minds, anyway. "We're still three minutes late."

"Yep."

"Wanted some time alone, eh?" Zac's grin is the first thing they see as the lift doors finally creak open and let them tumble out into the brightness of the third floor.

"Yes. Yes, we did," Nick exhales as Katherine brushes past him, beckoning them both with one manicured finger and a tight incline of the head.

"C'mon, you two," she says sharply. "No need to make our entrance even more late, however fashionable it may be considered."

"I don't envy you, Nick," Zac confides once he's finished teasing Nick – "Did you two finally kiss?" " _No,_ Zac, surprisingly, we _didn't._ " - as they both follow the striding step of their boss along the third-floor corridor to one of the conference rooms where a group of doubtlessly fed-up department leaders are waiting for them. "Katherine doesn't look like she's in the best of moods."

Nick gives an empathetic nod, though he winks at the younger employee to let him know he's really only exaggerating (and so Katherine doesn't hear and make his working life a misery). "Longest five minutes of my life."


	21. Umbrella

**Umbrella**

"You picked a great day to be all gallant and walk me home, Nick."

Nick ignores Katherine's sarcastic tones and tries to keep the thin flimsy umbrella upright over their heads so that it provides some version of shelter from the rain that dashes furiously against the pavement.

His coworker huddles a little closer under what suddenly seems like not a great amount of fabric to keep off the inclement weather. Nick's fairly sure his supposedly waterproof mac isn't doing much anymore, so concentrates on buffering the umbrella against the wind. They're hurrying along the pavement away from Calimov, in the vague direction of the town centre. They're the only ones out here, he notes with slight displeasure as another car drives past, narrowly avoiding soaking them both with yet another ever-deepening puddle by the kerb. Nick's honestly considering swallowing his pride and calling Rebecca to come pick them up, even though she and Katherine are notoriously hostile towards each other.

Katherine shakes drips from her damp hair, unwittingly giving her friend another shower. "Seriously, who invented rain?" she mutters.

"Amen British weather," Nick seconds, pulling his hood a little further over his head with his free hand. It had been perfectly sunny when he had set out from home this morning, figuring that he might as well get some exercise beside chasing after one of Eve or KT's recent shenanigans. That had been a different story, of course, when he next got access to a window, happening to be in Katherine's office when he was signing off for the day, and both Calimov employees had sighed in unison at realising the skies were black with storm clouds that didn't look like letting up soon. At least Nick was prepared for this eventuality and had a raincoat and umbrella stored in his locker. Katherine just looked a little – lost, staring out at the bucketing rain with a face like thunder.

"Is it far to your apartment building?" he wonders a moment later, a sudden breeze blowing the umbrella nearly out of his grip.

Katherine gestures vaguely down the main street they're rushing down. "About five minutes from here?"

"You walked all this way in?"

"Yep." She pulls her soaked blazer closer around her waist, casting another dark look at the heavy shower that they're caught in. "Regretting it _now_ , obviously…" She hesitates, throwing Nick a grateful look. "Thanks for this, Nick," she says gruffly. "I should have brought my car."

"Same, don't worry about it." Nick inhales as another larger gust of wind takes the umbrella and nearly turns it inside out with the force of the storm. He would have lost it completely if Katherine hadn't lunged and grabbed the handle with him, her hand grasping on top of his as they wrestle the disobedient umbrella back over them. "Thanks," he puffs.

"No problem."

They hasten on through the rain in silence. Nick only realises that both their gazes are drifting towards the windows of the shops they're passing when he looks back towards Katherine and she's staring through the glass at a bustling restaurant, waiters efficiently rushing around passing delicious-looking meals to smiling families.

His eyes meet hers. "Hungry?" he asks, almost timidly.

She shrugs casually, like he had expected her to. "Kind of," she admits.

Nick grimaces as another icy droplet of rainwater slides down the back of his neck and gives up entirely on the useless umbrella, shaking it off on the pavement as another cushy car speeds past. "Shall we go and wait out the storm, then?" he asks. "You weren't in any hurry to get home, were you?"

Katherine pretends to think about it, while furtively glancing at the little restaurant again. It does look warm – and dry, more to the point. And that pizza doesn't look half bad. "Yeah," she says carefully. "Why not?"

They share another long look, then both chuckle to themselves and hurry around the growing puddles into the cosy café.


	22. Vacation

**Vacation**

The scientist yawns as he messes up yet another equation and scribbles it out, smearing blue ink across the standing whiteboard and wishing he was back in bed. To be perfectly fair, he had spent the last five mornings yearning for exactly the same thing, except aforementioned bed hadn't been quite so appealing considering it was, in fact, a tent. And once he was up and stumbling across a busy campsite to find what claimed to be the toilet block, Eve would never let him go back to sleep.

Some things don't change even back at work.

Luckily, the person who typically bestows upon any orders upon him and the other employed underlings is in pretty much the same frame of mind this particular morning, if a little less on the wistful side. Katherine swishes from the door, marches to her seat at the desk next to his and plonks her briefcase-come-rucksack on top of the keyboard, sitting down uncharacteristically heavily and glaring at the computer screen as it drowsily boots up.

"Hey, Katherine," Nick tries greeting anyway, although he knows it's not the greatest of moves on a Monday morning, after they've both had a week off and are likely to be bitter about the fact. "How was your holiday?"

"Awful," Katherine replies bluntly.

"Oh." Nick tilts his head, stares at the algebra that seems to swim lengths up and down the white sea, teasing him with its front crawl. There's not much else to say.

Katherine bashes out her password into the computer like it had done her a personal offence. "How about you?" she inquires somewhat sullenly.

He considers lying, figures it's not worth the effort. "Really good," he agrees hoarsely. Scribble, scribble. The letters smirk at him, telling him that he's not getting out of this one all that easily.

Her sigh is visible, her frown guarded. "Good," she agrees, after a long moment.

Nick chances a look around. Katherine's still glaring at her screen, tapping a finger impatiently on the keyboard. The obvious thing to do would be to drop it. To change the subject. Maybe start up a controversial topic, get them yelling in each other's faces. That always lightens up a gloomy Monday mood, at least where the rest of their office is concerned. "It can't have been that bad," he says instead, silently cursing himself for it. "You weren't working, at least. Where did you go… London, wasn't it?"

"Nearby, yep." Katherine doesn't sound that enamoured with the fact. "Yeah, a holiday on your own is great. Wandering around London in the rain is also great. Trying to avoid all areas of conversation with your relatives when they choose a day for you to come and visit is equally great." Her chin drops onto her clenched fist. "It was pretty great, all things considered."

"Sounds it."

Katherine flares up at his somewhat sarcastic tone, although that hadn't been his intention at all. "Of course _you_ can't imagine a really bad vacation. Even if there was some kind of national disaster and your tent was soaked through by flooding, you'd probably find some way to have a good time with your _family_." The envious note that she puts on the last word makes her feelings clear.

"You should come with us one time." Nick gives up on making any sort of sense out of the scrawled equations in his own handwriting on the whiteboard and sits down at his desk, affording Katherine a tiny smile as he does so that lets all the fire out of her stiffened countenance. "I mean, I'm not offering a rain-free zone, and I can't promise the tent will stay up, or not be flooded for that matter, but you don't stand a chance of ever being alone, not on our family holidays."

She looks at him for an even longer moment, seeming to weigh whether he was being genuine or not. In the end she decides that apparently he is, and smiles cautiously. "Yeah. Maybe I wouldn't mind braving a national disaster in a drenched tent if I could evade having to go see my own family in a city for a week."

"Then it's sorted, then." Nick grins at her look of surprise. "Just watch, I'm telling Eve when I get back. And then she'll never let me drop the idea. You're coming on the next camping weekend whether you like it or not, Dr 'I've never been camping' Calvin."

The scientist pulls a face that she doesn't mean a word of, although this particular Monday is suddenly appearing a lot less infuriating than it had originally started out being. "I guess it's a deal."


	23. Winter

**Winter**

Nick looks up from his stare at the surface of his desk as he hears the swinging of the door, just audible above the usual background office chatter. Katherine's usually pale cheeks are flushed pink with cold as she pushes her way through the door, her hair unkempt and hastily brushed back from her face. Tiny flakes of snow remain in her tangled locks. She's wearing only a thin light blue blazer covering one of her usual short-sleeved blouses, and she's obviously feeling the effects of the frosty morning outside.

"Good morning," he greets somewhat sympathetically. "Is it cold out there?"

Katherine fights to hide her shivers, though it's a little too obvious what her answer would be when her arms are still folded tightly around her torso, trying to conserve the little body heat she has left. "It's not that cold," she lies.

Nick has to chuckle at her adamancy. "Right. And the reason you weren't wearing any layers, despite the fact it's quite obviously an icy January morning outside?"

"My car refused to start," replies his superior bitterly as she makes her way across the office. "And I was already running late as it was. The apartment lift froze overnight, so I had to take the eleven storeys of stairs, and the incredibly helpful weatherman neglected to mention the fact that it would start snowing halfway through my walk."

"Not a great start to the day," Nick has to concede.

"Why is it so cold in here?" Katherine wants to know.

"Unfortunately, the heating broke here as well," explains Nick ruefully. "We're basically surviving on warming our hands on scalding mugs of coffee and layering up with whatever warm jumpers we can find in the store cupboards."

"Great." Katherine sinks into a seat a desk away, looking somewhat enviously at the aforementioned cup of coffee that Nick cradles between his own palms. "Fantastic. Call ourselves a technology company, and we can't even fix our own heating."

"Here." Rather awkwardly, Nick gets up from his seat across the room and slides his jacket that had up until around five seconds ago been wrapped over the back of his office chair, over Katherine's bare shoulders. "Help you warm up a little."

Accepting the fact that she would probably freeze if she didn't at least try to raise her body temperature in the next few minutes, Katherine smiles thinly and pulls the slightly oversized jumper around her still-shaking shoulders. "Thanks, Nick."

"Well –" Nick looks slightly embarrassed as he makes his way back to his own desk, returning only moments later with a similar mug to his own that he passes over to Katherine. He must have somehow been keeping it warm on his desk for her. Katherine has to smile at the notion that Nick had thought to get her a mug of coffee as well as his own regular one every morning. "Can't have you freezing, can we?"


	24. X (Marks The Spot)

**X (Marks The Spot)**

 _Because I'm trying to procrastinate and decided to return to this OTP for a while (at least to finish off this little series because I am incapable of leaving things unfinished) XD_

 _'_ _We aren't even dating, but you agreed to come with me on my cross-country adventure, and now you're grinning, reading trivia about a landmark off of a pamphlet, and you're so gosh-darn excited, I don't even know what to think any more.'_

She had woken up this morning and known she had to get away.

Packing a handbag full of random essentials – a hastily made sandwich, an umbrella, keys – it was barely fifteen minutes before she had been staring at a familiar door, trying to summon up the courage and the humility to knock and demand whether he can help her.

She hardly needs to ask.

"Did you know that that hill –" an index finger jabs into her line of vision, gesturing to a somewhat misty horizon – "Is the site of the oldest castle in the region?"

"That's very interesting, Nick," Katherine sighs.

He unfolds ever more of the map, shaking it until she groans again and takes the flapping corner, so they're two adults crammed into a busy train aisle seat, trying not to smile as they both consider how strange this feels.

The conductor passes them, silently stamps their tickets and moves on to a boisterous young family, two boys fighting in the twin seats in front of them. "Is this prompted by anything?" Nick finally asks, now that the train is moving and they're passing the borders of their town, the familiar streets melding into green soup, blue sky dotted with clouds. It feels like she can finally breathe.

"I just – needed to get away for a bit," she explains falteringly, unable to put it into real words, words that her co-worker deserves for her dragging him from his house at eight am on a Sunday morning, when normally he would be catching a refuge from the work routine. To be fair, once she was in his hallway and he was rummaging in a cabinet for a rolled-up map which he swore was there just last week, the train had been his idea. Nick was the one she knew would have the ideas.

He nods, his eyes flickering briefly to her before blinking and focusing back on his map. "I can get that."

"I love the city, but it feels so cramped sometimes," she finds herself continuing, resting her head back against a poorly positioned seat.

Nick mimes stretching out his legs, hits his knee on the seat in front of them. "Cramped. Riiight."

"I offered we use my car!"

"That's not a _cross-country_ road trip, is it?"

"How is taking a train a _road_ trip?"

"Again, you agreed." Nick chuckles as their bickering grinds to a halt, his boss huffing and pretending she's annoyed as the train begins to slow, reaching the first stop. "Fancy this one?"

Katherine considers. "No. Not far enough."

"Okaay." Nick laughs, folds up the map, concentrates on making out the stops as they scroll past in red-lined lettering on the monitor. "How about… Leighworth Valley, then? Enough space for you?"

"If it has a mysterious forest and a meadow full of snowdrops for me to frolic in, I'm in."

"You're starting to sound like Eve, wanting to live out her dreams of fairytales that Rebecca read her last week." Nick smiles as he recalls. "She was up all last night absorbing them."

The train stops, people flood on, the doors close. They move on. Only when they're up to full speed again does Katherine find the will to bring words to mind again. "How is Rebecca?" she asks. Awkwardly. Trying to remind herself she's an adult and even though she and Nick have just been through hell and back together, even though she feels closer to her co-worker than she does to anyone else, the smiling face and blond swish of hair still chide her for thinking Nick could ever feel that for her too.

Nick doesn't pick up on it. "She's fine," he says. "Stays a few nights a week, makes school lunches for Will in the morning like it's her job. Often Lily and Abe too."

She smiles at her lap, not meaning it. "Gives you a break."

"Gives me some time to myself, yeah."

They descend into silence again. Katherine fights the urge to rest her head on his shoulder, squeezed so close to hers in their cramped quarters. Another stop comes and goes. She realises she's feeling better by the minute.

She's enjoying the feeling of freedom so much that when Nick pokes her, she jolts back into awareness, staring at him.

"I hate to tell you this and ruin your so-carefully laid five-minute plans, Katherine, but we just missed our stop."

She flares. "Why didn't you say so sooner?"

"I was miles away," he says honestly.

Katherine sighs. "Same."

He regards her with an unreadable expression. "Now what?"

"Maybe this was stupid."

"How so?"

"Maybe we should just get off here, wait for the next train home." She slumps in her seat, barely reacts when yet another toddler races along the aisle, dealing her shin yet another unwanted blow. Memories suddenly rushing back, pulling her uncomfortably from that peaceful state of mind that comes so infrequently nowadays, what with her career and all that. "I probably have some marketing campaigns to read through before tomorrow."

Nick looks at the glowing display overhead for a long moment, before sending her that half, sideways grin that she can never help but return. "You wanted an impromptu road trip, Katherine. So close your eyes."

She stirs. "Hmm?"

"Close your eyes and hold out your hand," he repeats insistently. For once, eventually she obeys and listens to the rustling as Nick unfolds his map, lays it out across both of their laps. "You wanted a road trip," he repeats. "Choose our destination and we'll go there. Today. And have sandwiches and a picnic probably. And not think about Mary, marketing or anything to do with Calimov, just for today. X marks the spot. Go."

Katherine takes a deep breath, mentally reminds herself to give Nick a pay rise sometime soon, and points.


	25. Yelling

**Yelling**

 _'_ _Person 1 falls asleep on the floor beside Person 2's bed when 1 thought 2 was having a nightmare, and didn't want to leave them alone.'_

* * *

 _Katherine knows she's dreaming._

 _She has always prided herself on maintaining absolute control over those unruly entities buzzing around the average head that one might call emotions, and she has never allowed sleep to be the exception to that rule._

 _At least, that had been the case up until around seven months ago._

 _So theoretically, right now Dr Calvin should be able to look her dream self sternly in the eye and tell her to snap out of it, to wake up._

 _But however logically she chooses to glare at it, logic doesn't stop her legs from quivering and her throat from croaking itself dry and her brain feeling absolute, pure, primal fear as Mary Douglas takes another step closer to her, smiling that terrible smile. The one that said that she's won._

 _"_ _Goodbye, Katherine," is all she says._

 _And then her world dissolves around her and there's blinding brightness ringing in her ears, and Katherine wakes up in a clinically cream chamber, staring up at the emotionless ceiling tiles and knowing, just knowing, that there's no way out of this one._

 _And then the doctor and all the nurses wear Mary's face, leering down at her, and Katherine bolts upright in bed with a cry of alarm._

 _Except it isn't her bed, she isn't awake, she's staggering against a wall, pain exploding in her arm, in a corridor that seems to be getting longer by the seconds, no-one there to watch her die._

 _And then she's in her office and she's pinioned to a leather sofa, her robot adversary stepping ever closer, staring right at her with that same smile over a boy's crumpled body._

 _"_ _I want what's keeping you alive."_

 _And Mary brandishes some mysterious device, and Katherine's backing away but she can't move, she's paralysed, and her nanobots are dying and she's dying and she's so scared, she's so, so scared._

 _Nick walks into view and Katherine turns dully, her dream state clouded, except it isn't right. Nick's smiling too, Mary's smile, his eyes narrowed in spite and hatred that didn't belong on her friend's face._

 _"_ _Nick, please," she dimly hears herself say, her voice not her own. "Please help me."_

 _He just smiles and said nothing._

 _And now he's holding the device, and Mary is striding closer, and Katherine closes her eyes tight._

 _"_ _Goodbye, Katherine."_

 _It's Nick's voice._

"Katherine!"

It's Nick's voice.

She wakes up abruptly from her dream, screaming out loud into her empty apartment.

A dream.

It was just a dream.

It's only when she finds it in herself to calm down that she realises her apartment isn't so empty after all.

She's sweating and she has tears in her eyes and she's tangled up in a knot of crumpled bedsheets, which she kicks out at in an attempt at escape. She looks up, and the first thing she registers was Nick standing over her bed, concern in his hazel eyes.

"Nick?" Her voice is nothing. Hoarse, like she's been yelling for a solid six hours. She coughs, tries again. "Nick? What – what are you doing here?"

He blinks blearily. "You – you were screaming in your sleep."

 _Great. Now even Nick knows I'm a nutjob._ Katherine tries her best at a reassuring smile, although her heart is still hammering in her ribcage and her vision is blurred with tears. "Nightmare," she explains shortly. "I mean… what are you doing here? In my apartment? At –" She twists her head, checks the digital clock on the opposite wall. "4am?"

Nick looks a little bewildered by the whole exchange, perhaps understandably so. "I was staying the night – you know, just to check you were okay being back in your apartment on your own."

"Oh." Katherine tries to shake herself from her stupor, get some memory back on board this crash course train. Yes, she remembers now. Mary's cure may have worked in safely removing all nanobots from her system, but she still isn't a hundred percent in terms of health, with traces of the burns she sustained seven months ago still decorating her skin, and snatches of exhaustion and pain frequent. It's still a start, as she had said when first agreeing to the treatment. Not by any means a perfect solution, but – a start.

She checks her arm now, still in a light layer of bandage. It seems okay. She confirms this much to Nick, who nods, still looking unsure. "What was your nightmare about? he asks hesitantly.

It tumbles out before Katherine can remind herself otherwise. "Mary," she blurts, the word sounding more like a sob than anything else. "Mary. She was – you were –" She drops her chin heavily to her chest, familiar panic leaping back into her throat.

She flinches, then relaxes as she realises it's Nick who sits down beside her, it's his arm that creeps around her shoulders, a comforting gesture. "Hey. Hey, it's all right. It's okay. Mary's dead, remember?"

"I know." Ashamed of the tears that brims over her eyelids, Katherine shakes her head, glares at her lap. "I know. It's just…"

"I know," replies Nick, seemingly understanding instantly. He has always had a habit of that. "Mary tried to blow you up – twice. It's natural to have nightmares. Just part of recovery."

Katherine tries vaguely to sort out her tangle of covers, curls her knees into her chest. Nick's arm is warm around her back. "Do you want to come back to stay at mine again for a while?" Nick asks softly after a minute of silence, once Katherine feels she can breathe slightly more steadily again.

She considers her reply. Considers saying yes, going back to Nick's companionable home and his at least supportive family and not having to feel quite so alone. "It's fine," she lies instead. "I'm fine."

Nick gives her a very unconvinced look.

Katherine, abashed for once in her proud existence, drops her gaze. "You should get some sleep, Nick," she mutters.

"Yes," he agrees unexpectedly.

She blinks at him, surprised by his readiness. "…Yes?"

He suddenly smiles at her, this time a real Nick smile. The one Katherine has only ever seen him reserve for concern over Eve or his family.

 _Family._

"Yes. Back in a minute."

Nick is already jumping up surprisingly nimbly from her bedside as she questions his actions, throwing her another slight smile then leaving the room. It was only a few seconds until he reappears, this time dragging what Katherine recognises as a pillow and duvet from her spare room where she dimly recalls setting her impromptu guest up a bed for the night. "No, Nick!" she reprimands, half getting up from her curled position in what really was a very messy bed, but her co-worker just laughs and shrugs as he rolls out the duvet on the floor right beside her bed.

"If you're going to scream and wake me up, at least let me comfort you from the comfort of my own bed."

Katherine can't help but giggle, the sound slightly less than halfway to a sob now. "Fine."

"Fine," Nick mimics, as they so often do in their many bickering sessions, while lying down on the rug and bringing the duvet right up to his chin, Katherine throwing him down an extra couple of cushions that dot her own bed. "Night, Katherine."

"What's left of it," she counters, but it's without venom, rather gratitude that anyone would choose to do this for her, over just a couple of nightmares. "Night, Nick."


	26. Zoo

**Zoo**

 _A/N) Last chapter! Thanks for everyone who read and commented, I hope you enjoyed this as much as I had fun writing it and crying to myself over this oblivious OTP. Let's pretend they get the ending they deserve._

Even now, Katherine can still find herself amazed at Nick's powers of positivity sometimes.

Understandably, everyone had been a little on edge since the whole Mary/nanocloud/threat to humanity incident. Eve was confused as to whether to mourn for her mother or not, and spent a lot of time mulling recent events over in her Replay Mode, even though Nick advised her to stop dwelling on the past. Will was still trying to get used to the idea of the sudden lack of the technology in his blood, that he was suddenly completely human, so was sometimes sullen and silent, even when Eve tried to engage him in her usual bright conversation. Nick knew they would all recover from this, but it would take time.

Meanwhile, once Katherine finally got out of hospital for the second time, of course she wasn't allowed to just go and relax on a beach somewhere. She found herself stressing again over suing Lord Hoffman's company for damage done to her own company, trying to replace the equipment lost in the bombing and reemploying workers who had upped and left after the incident. Also, perhaps justifiably, she was more than a little shaken by the whole event: having almost died in her own office for the third time in as many months.

That's when Nick stepped into his front room, where Katherine had temporarily set up base since she didn't have a real office at present, and announced that they were going to the zoo.

Now Eve is dragging Will around by the shirt sleeve, exclaiming in delight at every new animal she sees in their enclosures – apparently she's never been to a zoo before. Lily and Cain are strolling leisurely after them, standing _slightly_ too close to each other to be just platonic while they're engaged in some kind of detailed conversation about coding and comparing phone screens every so often, not so enraptured by the animals as their two friends.

Even Katherine has to admit this has taken her mind off things for a little while.

They've wandered around most of the enclosures by about mid-afternoon – spending the longest by the meerkats, since Eve fell in love with their antics and wanted to stay there all day – and now they're back by the penguins near the entrance to the zoo. The adults are hanging around by the wall of the enclosure, while Eve is demanding that the others come and watch the penguins being fed. Nick's unconvinced that this experience is really helping fulfil her protocols like she insists it is, but he's glad she's having fun all the same.

"This was a good idea," comments Katherine, keeping her tone casual and non-committal to brush over the fact that she may have just readily paid Nick a compliment.

Her companion looks contented as he watches a cream-bellied penguin catch a fish deftly in its beak. "Sometimes you just need something else to occupy yourself with for a little while instead of work or Mary's usual attempts at world domination. Might as well be the zoo as anything else."

She looks at him, meets his eyes properly. "I mean it, Nick. It was – actually - a _good_ idea."

 _I just don't know whether this is a good idea as well._

Then Katherine closes the short distance between them and kisses Nick, abruptly cutting off any complaints he may have had about sounding so surprised.

After a moment Katherine pulls away, turns back to watch the penguins, ignoring the fact that she's now standing slightly too close to Nick to just be platonic. Not to mention the fact that her co-worker now looks utterly dazed and actually kind of gormless as he stares at her, his jaw slightly ajar.

They've always been just co-workers.

But maybe it's time to be a little more than that.


End file.
